80 
Dr Hamilton’s Account of a Map 
which we found Taunu in the year 1795, it being then held as 
an appanage by the King’s second son. The ancient city of 
Taunu, however, stood at some distance, called three dain, from 
the present city, which was built by the king reigning in 1795, 
adjacent to the Paunlaun, while the old city stood at the junc- 
tion of the Pabaeh with the Khabaun. 
The King of Prom, mentioned in the Universal History, 
(vi. 74.) seems, like the King of Taunu, to have been merely 
a Mranma chief, who had received the revenues of a province 
for his subsistence. Prom, called usually Prin by the Mranmas, 
and Peeaye by Mr Wood, in the map of Asia, appears as Pec- 
aye. The present city, where the fourth in rank of the King’s 
sons resided in 1795, is situated close on the Erawadi ; but the 
old capital of this province was at some distance from the river, 
and was called Rase in the vulgar, and Sashrekattara in the sa- 
cred language. From what language the word Prom or Prome 
is derived I cannot say ; it may, perhaps, be the mere produc- 
tion of some typographical error, like the Peeaye of Mr Arrow- 
smith ; and many instances occur of European geographers ad- 
hering to such errors with great pertinacity. The word Prin, 
in some of the maps which I have, is written Pri, and in others 
Pre, to be pronounced Pyee or Pye, no doubt the same with 
the Peeaye of Mr Wood. 
To proceed south into the territory of the Talain, the Pasein 
of the Mranmas is the Persaim or Basseen of Europeans, and in 
1795 was the appanage of the King’s fifth son. In this map it 
is represented to have then stood much nearer the sea, and the 
great channel of the Erawadi coming from Rangoun custom- 
house, than it did, when the English had at the place a factory, 
in which state the authorities followed by Mr Arrowsmith re- 
present the vicinity. It must, indeed, be observed, that in a 
country, where the houses consist of sticks, bamboos and mats, 
the towns become almost as moveable as camps, and are very 
frequently changing. Yet the town of Pasein still, no doubt, 
is much nearer the Anaukkiaun, or western branch of the Era- 
wadi, than to the Alsegiaun, or middle branch, though the 
contrary is represented in some of the native maps. In the one 
now under discussion, the total omission of the western branch 
deprives us of its authority. 
1 
